From guided to self-regulated performance of domain-general skills

The fading of instructional scripts can be regarded as necessary for allowing learners to take over control of their cognitive activities during the acquisition of skills such as argumentation. There is, however, the danger that learners might relapse into novice strategies after script prompts are faded. One possible solution could be monitoring by a peer with respect to the performance of the strategy to be learned. We conducted a 2×2-factorial experiment with 126 participants with fading and peer monitoring as between-subjects factors to test the assumptions that (1) the combination of a faded script and peer monitoring has a positive effect on strategy knowledge compared to only one or none of the two types of support; and (2) this effect is due to a greater amount of self-regulated performance of the strategy after the fading of the script when peer monitoring takes place. The findings support these assumptions

Finding your niche in a global wine market - Establishment of the new wine brand #QSTG with focus on product development and entrepeneurial marketing

Vinifera Euromaster European Master in Viticulture and Oenology - Instituto Superior de Agronomia / EMaVEThe author intends to establish a new wine brand named #QSTG, which is a diminutive of the German term Quereinsteiger (in English: career changer). The name refers to the completely different professional background of the author, who has been a lawyer and entrepreneur for many years, before studying viticulture and enology. The idea is to create a brand for wines, produced by the author and other winemakers who also have other professional backgrounds, bringing in new ideas based on their different perspective, approach and style of winemaking. Within this project thesis the author first describes the scenario in which the new wine brand should be established, before defining the term entrepreneurial marketing by reviewing the existing literature and analyzing the current wine market. In the next step the author develops the wine brand #QSTG in accordance with the targeted niche market. This includes key aspects, such as positioning, brand name, logo, wine style and quality. Finally the marketing mix of #QSTG is developed, considering the findings about entrepreneurial marketing. Besides designing the product in collaboration with different graphic designers, this thesis also includes detailed elaborations about pricing, placement and promotion of the #QSTG products. Due to the concluded feasibility, the author will implement the project following the graduation. Therefore the master thesis ends with an outlook on the next steps of the implementation of the #QSTG wine projectN/

Magic State Distillation with Low Space Overhead and Optimal Asymptotic Input Count

We present an infinite family of protocols to distill magic states for $T$-gates that has a low space overhead and uses an asymptotic number of input magic states to achieve a given target error that is conjectured to be optimal. The space overhead, defined as the ratio between the physical qubits to the number of output magic states, is asymptotically constant, while both the number of input magic states used per output state and the $T$-gate depth of the circuit scale linearly in the logarithm of the target error $\delta$ (up to $\log \log 1/\delta$). Unlike other distillation protocols, this protocol achieves this performance without concatenation and the input magic states are injected at various steps in the circuit rather than all at the start of the circuit. The protocol can be modified to distill magic states for other gates at the third level of the Clifford hierarchy, with the same asymptotic performance. The protocol relies on the construction of weakly self-dual CSS codes with many logical qubits and large distance, allowing us to implement control-SWAPs on multiple qubits. We call this code the "inner code". The control-SWAPs are then used to measure properties of the magic state and detect errors, using another code that we call the "outer code". Alternatively, we use weakly-self dual CSS codes which implement controlled Hadamards for the inner code, reducing circuit depth. We present several specific small examples of this protocol.Comment: 39 pages, (v2) renamed "odd" and "even" weakly self-dual CSS codes of (v1) to "normal" and "hyperbolic" codes, respectively. (v3) published in Quantu

Providing Relief After a Natural Disaster Through Credit Reports

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the world to re-think systems that have been in place for decades, quickly adapting—at least temporarily— to the new normal. Among those systems was the credit reporting system. In response to the pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act; an act that, among other things, amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act in regard to how credit reporting agencies should respond to delinquencies resulting from the pandemic. This Note argues that to adapt to the increasing occurrence of natural disasters, the U.S. government must implement a system in which a consumer can easily alert their creditors when they become a victim of a natural disaster. This Note begins by considering the credit reporting and scoring system currently in place. It then touches on the current system’s strengths and shortcomings and introduces the Fair Credit Reporting Act—Congress’s response to the key credit reporting issues facing consumers. Part II discusses the system’s failures in the face of natural disasters, specifically how the system hinders rather than helps victims. The system, as it stands, does not differentiate between consumers who are less creditworthy because they made poor financial decisions and consumers who have been devastated by a natural disaster and have exhausted their resources as a result. Finally, this Note will offer three concrete suggestions for how to improve the system to accommodate those whose credit score was affected by a natural disaster rather than poor decision-making: (1) a requirement that an AW code be applied to a consumer’s credit report if the consumer is a victim of a natural disaster and requests it; this request should trigger a responsibility to furnishers and credit reporters that the code should be reflected in all of the consumer’s reports; (2) a requirement that the AW code remain on a credit report for a prescribed amount of time; and (3) a requirement for credit reporting agencies and furnishers to educate themselves on the AW code and their responsibilities towards consumers who request such a code. These small but significant changes will enable disaster survivors to protect their credit and allow them an opportunity to rebuild their lives without debilitating roadblocks

Effective Mathematics Instruction: Developing Best Practices for Student Learning

The purpose of this qualitative, intrinsic case study was to examine the perspectives of teachers and students as they pertained to how they understood and described effective mathematics instruction. The research population consisted of six ninth-grade students attending the educational centers in a regional charter system in California. The research population also included six high school mathematics teachers from the same regional charter system who had taught ninth-grade mathematics for at least two school years. The research instruments used in this study included semistructured interviews, observations, and an examination of artifacts. Interview questions were open ended and designed to capture the experiences, opinions, ideas, and feelings of the participants. The purpose of the observations was to provide a description of the setting and everything that occurred within. Interviews were transcribed manually, and the data collected through interviews, observations, and artifacts was broken down through the process of coding. Data gathered through the interview and observation process and the examination of artifacts showed that both teacher and student participants understood that effective mathematics instruction depended on the level of teacher-student engagement, developing and adhering to expectations, relating mathematics to real-life, and creating a safe teaching and learning environment. The voices of those closest to the issues presented in a mathematics classroom are of great importance in determining how to best realize effective mathematics instruction. It is hoped that further research in the area of mathematics reform includes the voice of teachers and students